Local governments may face scrutiny over PRC-national ward chiefs

Taipei, Nov. 20 (CNA) The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) has referred four local governments and five district and township offices to the Control Yuan for investigation after they failed to dismiss five ward and village chiefs who are said to hold People's Republic of China (PRC) nationality.

Chieh Yu-chin (簡鈺珒), deputy head of the ministry's Department of Civil Affairs, said at a press briefing in Taipei on Thursday that the MOI sent letters to local authorities starting on Nov. 29, 2024 to handle the issue in accordance with the Nationality Act.

The local governments and district and township offices failed to respond, however, and the matter was referred to the Control Yuan -- the government branch responsible for investigating and censuring government wrongdoing -- in May for investigation, Chieh said.

It was unclear why the MOI did not make the referral public until Thursday, six months after it happened.

Since May, however, only one of the five village and ward chiefs in question has been removed, and that case remains under appeal.

In explaining its Control Yuan referral, the MOI asserted that the village chief in Hualien County's Fuli Township and four ward chiefs from Tucheng and Zhonghe districts in New Taipei, Songshan District in Taipei, and Xinwu District in Taoyuan are still PRC citizens, which is not allowed under the law.

Once Chinese spouses become Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan's official name) nationals, their eligibility to hold public office is governed by the Nationality Act, Deputy Interior Minister Wu Tang-an (吳堂安) said at the press briefing.

Article 20 of the Nationality Act stipulates clear steps an ROC national who has dual citizenship has to take if they want to hold a government office.

The individual must apply to renounce the other nationality before taking office and complete the process and obtain the necessary documentation within one year from taking office, according to the act.

The four village chiefs still in office said to hold PRC nationality are Wang Min-ju (王敏茹) in Taipei, Peng Hsiao-lin (彭小林) in Taoyuan, and Teng Yueh-lan (滕月蘭) and Lin Hsiu-chen (林秀貞) in New Taipei.

The only one who has been removed is Deng Wan-hua (鄧萬華), who served as chief of Xuetian Village in Hualien County's Fuli Township before being removed from her post by the township office on Aug. 1.

Deng appealed against her removal, and on Oct. 29 the Hualien County government's Appeals Committee said it had reversed this decision, though Deng was still not allowed to return to office.

The MOI said Thursday that the case now has to be further investigated by the Fuli Township Office before any new decision is made.

The township office said it would review the matter by taking into account the views of both the ministry and the Hualien County government, while reviewing the relevant laws.

At the same time, however, the law requires that township or district offices be responsible for removing people with PRC nationality, apparently leaving the MOI with little direct legal recourse.

Deng, meanwhile, said she has not received any official documents or notifications regarding the case and that she was not in a position to comment publicly before a conclusion was reached.

The catch for these and other naturalized ROC citizens from the PRC is that it is extremely difficult to renounce PRC citizenship for naturalized ROC citizens.

Under PRC law, Chinese nationals who have settled abroad and been naturalized as a "foreign national" shall "automatically lose Chinese nationality."

But China does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state, making it hard for people like Deng to qualify as a "foreign national" in Beijing's eyes.

She previously said she had tried to contact Chinese authorities to renounce her PRC citizenship but was ignored.